Watch all the basketball action this March at Station Casinos. Share the excitement with fellow fans and enjoy food and drink specials while watching the best college basketball players in the country, either from a sports book, or special viewing party at select properties.

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Best Bites | With last week being Valentine’s Day I wanted to take my wife somewhere special for dinner. I wanted to go old school to a vintage Las Vegas restaurant, one I hate to admit I had not gone to yet and has been in Las Vegas for 45 years.

Giants, Eagles results offset books to a mediocre day

The two most one-sided games in Sunday’s NFL Week 11 action cashed for bettors as the Browns again found a new way not to cover, which should have been the perfect recipe for Las Vegas sportsbooks to get buried on the day. But it wasn’t all that bad.

Making a more devastating appearance on paper was favorites going 8-3-1 against-the-spread. There were a lot of different moving parts happening at the books to cause such vastly different results around town.

Yes, the popular Eagles (-6.5) won 37-9 at Dallas on Sunday night and the Patriots (-7) beat the Raiders 33-8 while 7,200 feet above sea level in Mexico City. Those two covers were the root of the day’s demise for some, but other books found themselves able to withstand the most popular 13-to-5 parlay payout of the day (Pats-Eagles) and show a profit.

“Our day has actually been okay with big wins from the Bengals and Giants and covers by the Redskins (+9 at Saints) and Vikings (-2 vs. Rams),” said Station Casinos sportsbook director Jason McCormick. “The Patriots was our worst game of the day, but we’re thankful it stayed Under the total (55.5).”

It should be noted the Patriots stayed in the high altitude of Colorado Springs all last week after winning at Denver to prepare for Mexico City. The Raiders flew straight in Saturday from Oakland, which is only 43 feet above sea level. The Patriots (8-2) have won six straight and covered the past four weeks.

McCormick said they did well enough from the first 11 games that an Eagles cover wouldn’t make them a loser on the day. It was the same situation at the MGM Resorts sportsbooks along the Strip. “The Philly cover gives back about half of what we won on the day,” said MGM’s sportsbook hub manager Jeff Stoneback just prior to kickoff. “Philly and Over (48) would be our worst scenario.”

Stoneback opened the Eagles as 3.5-point favorites at Dallas and they closed at -6 -115 while most other books like Wynn and Station closed at -6.5.

“We got a lot of sharp Dallas buy-back on the phones to keep us from going to -6.5,” said Stoneback.

William Hill books had 95 percent of their action on the game taking the Eagles, most of it rumored to be from one bettor who has a duffle bag full of cash and lays six-figures, or whatever he can get, at multiple bet shops in town. He’s part of the reason why there was such a rapid line movement around town. The public is the other reason as William Hill had 89 percent of the tickets written on the game taking the Eagles. Philadelphia (9-1) has won eight straight and covered its last seven. Of course they’re popular since everyone is cashing with them.

The night games have been a thorn in the side of books for most of the season.

“Seems like all these isolated night games finish the same way, with the favorite and Over happening,” said Stoneback, bracing himself for the worst decision Sunday night, which didn’t happen. “On Thursday night we had the Steelers and Over hit and the past four Monday nights have seen the favorite to the Over.”

A few books lost with the Eagles decision, and others remained in the black, but most were unified in the key games they won with.

Before the Giants’ 12-9 overtime home win against the Chiefs, KC coach Andy Reid had been 16-2 coming off a bye. The Giants (+10.5) moved to 2-8 overall on the season while the Chiefs dropped to 6-4 after a 5-0 start.

The Chiefs’ only win in their last five came against the lowly Broncos, who dropped their sixth straight Sunday at home against the tired Bengals. Both those games turned out to be the biggest wins between the first 11 games of the day for MGM books.

“The Giants win was huge for us,” said Stoneback. “It was half our win on the day and most of the win came from big money-line parlays taking the heavily favored teams; they bet a lot to win a little and we’ve got a couple of players who routinely bet the games like that.”

The Chiefs led the NFL with the fewest turnovers on the season with four, but had three passes intercepted Sunday. Wynn sportsbook closed the game a city high +400 on the Giants money-line.

“Our second-best win was Cincinnati beating the Broncos outright in the afternoon,” Stoneback said of the Bengals’ 20-17 win at Denver (-3 EV). “The Broncos had a ton of parlays attached to them, a lot of which were tied to the Patriots and Eagles, but the Bengals win got posted first in the system.”

The last time Denver lost six straight was in 1990, a season John Elway started all 16 games. It’s a shame with him as executive VP that he wouldn’t have the team better equipped at the QB position. Maybe there’s a method to his madness with the continued losing turned into a positive for the future with QB’s Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen and Mason Rudolph all figuring to be high draft picks.

By the way, the Bengals win snapped a 10-game losing streak at Denver dating back to 1975 and their victory Sunday paid out at a high of +135 on the money-line at the South Point. William Hill sportsbooks reported having 92 percent of the cash on the game taking the Broncos.

The Browns looked to be on their way to getting a cover and maybe even a win, down 13-7 at home against the Jaguars with 1:14 to go and the ball. But Cleveland QB DeShone Kizer fumbled the ball backward into his own end zone. After one of the Browns players couldn’t recover, a Jaguars defender did for 6-points and a 19-7 lead.

Cleveland failed to cover the spread again in a brand new miserable way, this time getting +7.5. So close and yet so far away. They invent new ways weekly for bettors to have epic bad beat stories. Wise guys continue to play the perceived weekly value with Cleveland and get buried – 2-8 ATS, the worst among all 32 NFL teams.

The Buccaneers had a 30-20 win at Miami, a game where the Dolphins went from -3 to Tampa Bay -1.5 by kickoff. But the big swing with was the total, which moved from 40.5 to 44. The game was sitting 23-20 with the books facing middle opportunities. Tampa Bay kicked off with seconds left after booting the winning field goal and Miami tried a bunch of laterals on the return, but their final one landed in the end zone and a Buccaneer recovered for a TD. All steamed Over play gets there no matter when betting it.

Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp. (BYD) reported fourth-quarter net income of $82.2 million on Tuesday. The company said it had profit of 71 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, were 22 cents per share.

Clear the Bases | Over the season, you can expect my top MLB picks and betting angles, current baseball news, and the inside scoop from our own race and sports directors on the biggest bets and who is making them.